Barack Obama didn’t just do the right thing, he actually did the brave thing.

[bigtree]

from Democracy Now with Vt. Activist Bill McKibben: http://www.democracynow.org/2012/1/19/obama_rejects_keystone_xl_pipeline_under


AMY GOODMAN: Bill, when you heard the news yesterday that President Obama had rejected the pipeline outright, what was your response?

BILL McKIBBEN: Well, you know what? I had two responses. One, you know, I wrote the first book about global warming, I think 23 years ago now, and there have been precious few days in that two decades when scientists have been left smiling and Big Oil has been left scowling. This was a real victory for people standing up. If we hadn’t gone and done what we did out in the streets, if we hadn’t made record numbers of public comments on this, then the oil industry, as usual, would have gotten away with a really bad idea.

And the second thought, frankly, was about Barack Obama. Now, I’m no knee-jerk partisan, necessarily, of the President. I get arrested—I spent three days in jail for being arrested outside his house. But yesterday, in the face of just absolutely naked political threat—the American Petroleum Institute said last week, if the pipeline wasn’t approved, there would be, quote, "huge political consequences," and you know they have the money to make good on that threat. In the face of that kind of bald political threat, Barack Obama didn’t just do the right thing, he actually did the brave thing. The knock on him is that he’s been too conciliatory and eager to please all sides and things. Yesterday was pretty stunning.


read more and watch: http://www.democracynow.org/2012/1/19/obama_rejects_keystone_xl_pipeline_under



more from Vt. Activist Bill McKibben: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/01/18/obama-s-denial-of-keystone-permit-was-a-welcome-win-against-big-oil.html


Obama’s Denial of Keystone Permit Was a Welcome Win Against Big Oil

Rejecting the transcontinental oil pipeline, the president turned the conventional wisdom on its head, but the real victors were the idealistic protestors.

I wrote the first book on global warming way back in 1989, so I know for a fact that there have been very few days in the last two decades when the scientists have been smiling and big oil scowling. When the president denied the permit for Keystone XL on Wednesday, he didn’t just turn the usual balance of power upside down, he turned the conventional wisdom more or less on its head—as late as October, a National Journal poll of 300 D.C. “energy insiders” showed 91 percent predicting that the pipeline would be approved.

The victory is of course a tribute to people who set aside their natural cynicism about the possibility of change and instead went to jail in record numbers, wrote public comments in record numbers, surrounded the White House shoulder to shoulder five deep. They managed to bring reality to the forefront for once, and that reality—the leaky pipeline, the oil destined for export, the carbon overload from the tar sands—managed to trump, for now, the bottomless pockets of the fossil fuel industry.

What was interesting yesterday was watching the reaction of the congressional leadership, who’d forced the issue by passing legislation mandating a speedy approval process. They’d set the president an essentially impossible task, since Transcanada Pipeline hadn’t even announced the route they wanted to take through Nebraska. But apparently they thought he’d blink anyway. After all, the head of the American Petroleum Institute had issued the most naked political threat imaginable: block the pipeline, he’d told the president in a speech last week, and there will be “huge political consequences.” And of course he has more than enough money to back up the threat.


read more: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/01/18/obama-s-denial-of-keystone-permit-was-a-welcome-win-against-big-oil.html

[dionysus]

1. kick. sad positive threads about dems don't get more attention.

[opihimoimoi]

2. yes he did the right thing....he is looking for the best answers to the most important project this

century ...at least until a new and bigger one emerges...

[Cleita]

3. I'm writing him to thank him.

If enough of us let him know we appreciate what he did, maybe we will see more of this down the line.

[bigtree]

12. right. good move

. . . and tell him that you're going to oppose any attempt to revive the project in any form (if you're so inclined

Here's some contact info for folks:


http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/submit-questions-and-comments

Comments: 202-456-1111
Switchboard: 202-456-1414

TTY/TTD
Comments: 202-456-6213
Visitor's Office: 202-456-2121

The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

[Cleita]

14. Thanks. I hope other DUers use your information as well.

I think he needs encouragement to break away from his DLC leanings.

[Old and In the Way]

4. Thanks President Obama.

The pipeline would be bad policy and bad politics. The more people learn about this pipeline, the less they like it.

[bigtree]

23. that's right

we now have a ready base of folks who are primed to oppose any further action; emboldened and encouraged even more by the President's support. I'd expect there to be no problem at all in mobilizing a sizable legion of opponents if the company manages to find a way to submit a visible plan.

[spanone]

5. k&r...

[Gman]

6. Wah Wah Wah! He didn't close Guantanamo

and when he closes Guantano: wah wah wah, we're still in Afghanistan... ad nauseum.

[Lionessa]

7. IF only he had made the decision because the pipeline is a bad idea. But he didn't so we will

probably be revisiting this issue in short order.

He only denied it because of the time deadline in the payroll tax bill, "not a judgment on the merits of the pipeline, but the arbitrary nature of a deadline" in his own words.

Please lets keep the cheerleading in proper perspective. He didn't stand up to big oil, he stood up to an arbitrary deadline from Congress.

If he had the balls to stand up to big oil, the BP mess wouldn't have been swept under the carpet by the admin like it has been.

[bigtree]

11. so you're telling Vt. Activist Bill McKibben to 'keep his cheerleading in proper perspective'

. . the guy who is credited with jump-starting the Keystone protests?

Amazing.

[Lionessa]

13. Sure, why shouldn't I point out facts even to him.

I hope he enjoys the position of anti-pipeline, because regardless of the name of the next proposal, there will be one. After reading the articles presented on DU to date, I expect we'll be hearing about an alternative one in short order.

[bigtree]

16. because it just sounds like sour grapes

give credit where it's due -- Bill McKibben: for having more sense than to have to be reminded of that; and the President for the boldness of his action.

It's just fine to keep setting the bar, but it becomes ridiculous to state the obvious that someone might propose another project. It's less of a sure proposition, in the face of this rejection under pressure, that this president will ultimately approve any of them.

[Lionessa]

17. I've given credit exactly as Obama asked for it, whereas he says he's not against the pipeline

only against the deadline.

Sorry, perhaps you and McKibben shouldn't be giving him credit where he hasn't earned it yet.

Kind of like offering the Nobel Peace Prize before he earned it, so instead he's a huge chicken hawk that hasn't to date deserved it.

[bigtree]

18. Bull. He just rejected the project

The company will need to submit a new proposal and begin the approval process all over again for whatever siting they are asking for. It's ridiculous to suggest the President can just reject any future project out of hand.

But I see you're so desperate to put a negative spin on this that you're even willing to insult one of the primary organizers in the recent fight against the pipeline with your patronizing nonsense about 'cheerleading'. Inspiring.

[Lionessa]

19. I'm sorry you lack critical reading skills. A few paragraphs down,...

as noted in many posts across many OPs today, he isn't against the pipeline, and is open to new proposals. Heck you even mention that they will be doing exactly that. How long till it happens? I imagine it will be a day or two after the 2012 elections. Then I expect that there will a streamlined zoom to approval. This, based on past experience with Obama's policy paths, is just a temporary situation that big oil has allowed him, in order to get elected so they can then continue to be blessed as they have been with BP, fracking, and such.

Obama only cares about the forced time frame, he doesn't want to approve it or anything like it till after his second term is on tap. Now this is what he's said, you can discount it if it helps your blind faith, but I shall not ignore key statements within the announcement.

[bigtree]

20. you lack understanding that this is a political process

. . . and the President has done what we've asked, so far.

The 'past experience' argument is such bullshit it doesn't even deserve a decent response. Believe what you want. As it stands right now, you've been proven wrong. The President rejected the project. He did the bold thing in the face of opposition in an election year; against his critics on the right and the left's predictions. Live with that. It seems to just aggravate you to no end.

[Lionessa]

21. If motive doesn't count in your world, so be it. It does count in mine.

[Old and In the Way]

24. For some, any credit would ruin the repackaging of Obama that they are trying to sell here. nt

[bigtree]

27. it's usually, in effect, just campaigning against our all-but-prospective Democratic nominee

. . . something I wish the board would draw some lines of distinction to address.

[Occulus]

25. What we're looking for is "I will not support the construction of ANY pipeline driving through

the American heartland, period."

Why is that so hard to understand?

As usual, what Obama did, even though it was technically the correct decision, was milquetoast, lacking in conviction, with a wet finger to the political wind. The bald political threat he faced should have been met with an equally bald denial.

It was not.

[bigtree]

26. that's what this action says

just because he says they're welcome to submit another proposal isn't an endorsement of anything; no more than he's endorsed anything so far.

The rest is political posturing against the onslaught of republican charges that he's turning down jobs or just rejecting projects out of hand to satisfy 'environmentalists' in our party. He's taken the correct position for a president in stating the obvious; that anyone is free to submit whatever proposal they want. He just isn't obligated to approve them. This action should demonstrate that clearly to proponents and opponents alike. That's why this key activist against the pipeline is praising the President for his courage in standing up to the opposition. Only here on DU would folks brush past that opinion of such a primary mover and shaker in the recent protests to make yet another dubious prediction that the President is bound to approve a project through ecologically sensitive regions of the country. He just made it clear that he rejects that proposition with this action.

[Bodhi BloodWave]

28. Whoa, wait wait wait, let me get this straight

So now its his WORDS that matter and not his ACTIONS?

I was danged sure that I've read here on DU again, and again, and again, and again that his Words doesn't matter but his Actions do.

And now that he performed the action of rejecting the pipeline outright its not relevant since you haven't heard a specific sentence?

[The Doctor.]

29. We have a winner.

I always know I support the right issue or person when its/their opponents fall all over themselves with hypocrisy.

[Bodhi BloodWave]

30. it never ceases to amuse me tho

Obama supporter: Did you hear what Obama plans to do about *random subject*

Critic: Obama has a way with words so they don't mean much, I only care about his actions

Some time later

Obama supporter: Did you read about what Obama did in regards to *different random subject*

Same critic: I haven't heard him say he is for/against it so its an empty gesture to try and keep us silent, he will prove me right soon enough

**

Its mind-boggling at times that they don't seem to expect us to notice the disconnect in the arguments

[sweetloukillbot]

31. Nah, it's all just words until he needs to get on a bully pulpit....

[KT2000]

8. He sure did!

That was some really good news.

[Scurrilous]

9. K & R

[msongs]

10. credit to Obama for this. oil was for export, not USA - let Canada deal with it nt

[Cleita]

15. Al Jazeera had an excellent documentary on the oil sands

source of this oil. Much of it is on Native American reservations up there and it's really nasty environmental damage to extract it. I hope the rank and file Canadians push back on their government to stop this altogether. It's really bad news.

[TheKentuckian]

22. Good, that is the way to roll.

Proceeding with the pipeline is batshit, pro-survival is always positive.